1. Field
The present disclosure relates to video call technology, and, more particularly, to a system and method, for a video call, that display respective users in the same direction as a reference orientation or a reference posture in a video screen.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Recent developments in information and communications technology have allowed a video call as well as a voice call through a portable terminal. In a video call service, users capture their own images using cameras attached to portable terminals and then transmit the images to counterpart portable terminals so that they can talk with each other while looking at their counterparts.
A video call service can provide a one-to-one video call between a caller and a called party and a group video call. Here, group video calls are mainly made through a control device called a multipoint control unit (MCU). The MCU is a device that receives voice and images transmitted by respective portable terminals, combines the plurality of voices and images into one, and then transmits the combined voice and image data to the respective portable terminals.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an existing video call system employing an MCU.
Referring to FIG. 1, in an existing video call system, since an MCU 20 combines images a, b, c, and d transmitted by respective portable terminals 11, 12, 13, and 14 as they are, and then delivers a combined image I, to the respective portable terminals 11 to 14. The images a to d in the combined image I may have different display orientations according to the various orientations being used by users of the respective terminals 11 to 14 during the video call.
For example, when the portable terminal 11 and the portable terminal 14 are rotated by 90 degrees clockwise with respect to a reference orientation, and capture images, and the portable terminal 12 and the portable terminal 13 capture images in the reference orientation, the images a and d captured by the portable terminal 11 and the portable terminal 14 each are combined by the MCU 20 in their then-active orientation, i.e., rotated by 90 degrees counterclockwise. The images b and c, however, captured by the portable terminal 12 and the portable terminal 13 are each combined by the MCU 20 in their then-active orientation, namely, the reference orientation.
In this case, when users of the respective portable terminals 11 to 14 look at the combined image I, the images a and d in the combined image I are shown in the orientation rotated by 90 degrees counterclockwise, and thus the viewers see a combined image that looks strange and is hard on the eyes.